JAPAN: Mao in the Supermarket

What is a true bastion of iron? It is the
masses, the millions upon millions of people who genuinely support the
revolution.

Mao Tse-tung

Replace "the revolution" with the term sound merchandising, and that
quotation becomes a guide to success in capitalist retailing. So claims
Isao Nakauchi, head of Japan's fastest-growing store chain and an
admitted admirer of Mao, even though he himself is a political
conservative. By following the Chairman's strategic principles,
Nakauchi has built his 14-year-old Daiei, Inc., into a 63-store chain
that in 1970 grossed $415 million, second only to the volume of the
Mitsukoshi department stores. This...